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Be Productive With Your iCloud

When iCloud was first introduced back in 2011, many users were confused of all of its features and how to properly store information off their Mac, iPhone, iPad and iTouch. It works as a way to store and save any personal information from contacts, notes, photos an apps. Although iCloud is compared...

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Apple has officially released its newest smartphones, the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Even though the devices have only been on the market for less than a week, they have already posted some very impressive sales numbers. According to a recent sales report from Apple, the company has sold over 13 million new devices over the weekend, which is a new record for the iPhone.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s press statement, “Sales for iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first-weekend sales results in Apple’s history. Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9th.”

So what’s the reason for such high sales numbers? Probably the fact that Apple included China in its opening weekend sales. China passed over Europe to become Apple’s second biggest market earlier in the year, with sales growing three times faster than in North and South America. To compare, Apple sold 10 million units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in its opening weekend last year and 9 million units of the iPhone 5S and 5C the year before that. In both cases, the launch of the smartphones in China was delayed.

So what’s new with the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus? Well for starters, these new smartphones come preloaded with Apple’s latest iOS 9 operating system. In addition to that, the new phones come with the new A9 chip with 64-bit architecture and M9 motion coprocessor. There’s 2GB of RAM as well as a 12MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. 4K resolution is also supported at 30fps along with 4.2 Bluetooth.

Granted the changes aren’t astounding, but they are decent. Are they enough for people to upgrade from the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus to the iPhone 6S or 6S Plus? Probably not. But they are good enough to get people to go from an iPhone 5 model (or earlier) and, maybe, good enough for some people to make the jump from an Android device to an Apple.

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Apple has officially announced the iPhone 5, an announcement that has been long anticipated and much hyped, but is the new phone worth the wait? Initial inclinations point to no. While the iPhone is lighter, thinner and faster than the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, it doesn’t bring anything new or groundbreaking to the table that hasn’t already been done by Android or other smartphone developers.

If you come down off your excitement high for a moment and really look at the new iPhone, has Apple really added a single, legitimately new feature? The answer is no. There is nothing groundbreaking here, nothing that will make people look at the iPhone 5 and honestly go “wow”. I mean, the biggest thing Tim Cook and company stressed during the announcement was all the work that went into the new, larger screen, which is still smaller than other devices, like the Galaxy S III from Samsung.

The lack of any real new feature won’t mean much to the average Joe consumer. Most of these people can’t see past the words “Apple iPhone” anyway, so you could essentially hand them a brick that says Apple iPhone on it and they would think it was the best thing on the market. But for anybody with half a brain that does their research, they will see that the iPhone 5 isn’t the market buster that it was poised to be and is, in fact, just another smartphone for sale.

When you break it down, what exactly did Apple talk about during the press conference? There was a lot of talk about the addition of 4G LTE, something that has actually been on a lot of smartphones for over a year now. There was talk about the ability to take a photo directly from a video, which is cool until you realize that the Galaxy S III and One X can do the same. Putting together a group of photos in Panorama mode was also mentioned, though is also available on the new Droid Razr phones.

If you haven’t been paying attention, there is nothing here that sets a new bar for the industry, at least not in the way the original iPhone or iPhone 3G did. Everything that the new iPhone 5 has to offer has already been done before by other developers, leaving Apple, for one of the first times ever, behind the curve.

Yahoo! has actually made a nice comparison chart pitting the new iPhone 5 against some of the other popular smartphones on the market, including the phone I recently purchased, the Galaxy S III from Samsung. The list, which can be found below, compares the iPhone 5’s screen size, operating system, cameras, battery and size, offering some pretty interesting statistics if you ask me.

The stats speak for themselves. In comparison to the Samsung Galaxy S III, which is the most popular 4G LTE smartphone on the market right now, the iPhone 5 has a smaller screen, a lower-resolution front-facing camera, a weaker battery, and is generally smaller all around. In fact, the iPhone 5 ranks last in every single category out of all the phones listed (Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S III, Razr HD, Lumia 900, iPhone 5).

Overall, the hype surrounding the iPhone 5 was more than what Apple delivered. What we have here is a somewhat generic 4G LTE smartphone that is outmatched by at least four other phones, not to mention the fact that it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Add that to the fact that Apple could be sued by HTC and Samsung for (ironically) patent infringement over 4G LTE technology and you have one big dropped ball from Apple.

If you still think the iPhone 5 is the greatest thing since sliced bread then by all means, throw your money at Apple once again. Pre-orders for the device will become available on Friday, September 14th with actual shipments of the phone going out on September 21st. Pricing is the same as the launch of the iPhone 4S with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions available for $199, $299 and $399, respectively.